


Dead flowers

by SharpestRose



Category: Lord of the Rings (2001 2002 2003), Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-08
Updated: 2011-07-08
Packaged: 2017-10-21 03:50:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Shire isn't quite the same as when Sam and Frodo left it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead flowers

You're not the only one who had adventures this year, Samwise. Not to say yours weren't important, like, but things were right strange for those of us who didn't journey off, too.

Lots of different creatures came to the Shire, even before Sharkey and his ruffians. Folk took to locking their doors every night, and windows too. Epiphany Proudfoot's brothers swore up and down that she called out to them for a week after they buried her - she'd died the same way many did that season, throat torn like a wild dog had worried at the skin.

Some said maidens were at more risk than mothers or crones, that whatever was doing the killing could smell whether a lass was pure. But I was waiting for you, Sam, I knew you'd come back some day.

It hurt, I don't have to say any more about it save for that. It was that fellow who used to watch me when I danced at parties, the one you said gave you the shivers. He stank like the butcher's garbage pail in summer, and his hands bruised where they grabbed me.

I killed my cat, Sam. My little tabby-puss you gave me on your birthday before you went away. You know I loved that little cat, but the hunger scratched and clawed at me like a cat inside, a big strong cat I couldn't fight, nor my little tabby-puss.

I felt so filled after, warm and tickled. Is that how Mr Frodo makes Sam feel, I wondered to myself. I'd tried to hate him, years back when you two started, but I never could because he loved you same as I did, and he made you happy. He taught me to write my name with pen and ink when I asked for his help, and I don't forget kindnesses easy.

I was lonely, Sam, lonely as anything. There were a few others like me, skulking about in the night, but we didn't stop to chat over a pint when we ran into each other. I used to sit on my own in the garden before the dawn, remembering how we used to talk. You once told me that even dead flowers could be beautiful, but I made a sorry lifeless Rose indeed.

My Dad knows, I think. He told Nibs to stay close to me and my mother when the trouble started with Sharkey, but though he always gave Nibs a pitchfork or axe to wield he slipped me the sharpest knives and strongest ropes. My cat was lost but nobody was going to lay a finger on my family while I was there.

When news first came through the rumour mills that you were coming back, my heart jumped and then crashed to earth. How could you love a thing like me? I'd held hopes of wedding you, for I knew you felt affection for me and that MR Frodo wanted to see you as head of a big family. I wanted to be the one to give you that family, but now I was a thing with eyes that shone oddly in the light and teeth too long in my mouth. I'd never have you, and oh how that made me cry.

Then I heard other rumours. That the Gollum-thing that journeyed with you had bitten your Mr Frodo, left him changed and pale. I heard talk that when you and Frodo slept you couldn't be told from the dead, that warmth and breath had fled you, too.

And oh how that made my cold heart light.

Now you've come back to me, you and your Mr Frodo, and I'm going to take the best care any wife ever did. You'll be well fed and as comfortable as if we were like typical folk. I don't draw breath anymore, Sam, but I like to smell the old smoke scents in your jacket.

You're not the only one who had adventures this year, but it's over now. We're going to be happy in our little home, the three of us. Forever.


End file.
